


Circus

by hylianNerd



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Circus, Amnesia, F/F, F/M, Gen, Hypnotism, I Don't Even Know, I Tried, I'm Sorry, M/M, What Have I Done, and a circus, and yeah, how am i supposed to tag this thing, not really - Freeform, sort of steampunk, there is some crockercorp thing going on, uh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-07
Updated: 2014-05-08
Packaged: 2018-01-23 20:41:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1578869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hylianNerd/pseuds/hylianNerd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Welcome ladies and gentlemen, to the fabulous, amazing, mind-blowing Alternian Circus! Here, you will find telepaths, magicians, grand beasts and many other things - you won't believe your eyes! Nothing is impossible under this big top, whether it be the darkest secrets or the unbelievable itself! Will you be brave enough to follow us?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> so i always wanted to write an evil circus kind of thing, and i finally decided to - this isn't the kind of thing i write usually, so sorry if it's really shitty. oh and this is set in a steampunk-like universe, even though it's not necessarily described a lot.

Your name is Dave Strider, and you're still not really sure why you accepted to follow Jade to that fucking circus.  
  
For a month, she talked about it everytime she could - it was almost starting to annoy you out of your goddamned mind. You couldn't blame her though, she spent her childhood in the middle of the jungle or some shit equally as far with her grandfather; she only came to the city when he died of old age and needed to live with her sibling, John. You befriended her quickly, she was pretty cool. When the black-haired girl knocked at your door with a demeanor more happy and excited than you've ever seen, you couldn't refuse when she waved the tickets in front of your face. What wouldn't you do for Harley?  
  
That was how you found yourself in a pretty fucking bad situation.  
  
You currently are being pinned to the ground by the guy you once called best friend, and his fucking sickle is so close to your throat that you could die by only moving your head. That, and you totally aren't scared, pfft. Striders are never scared.   
  
Most of all, you're confused.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
You had known Karkat all your life - you were neighbors, and you grew pretty close to each other, after a while. He was a bit douchey, indeed, but you were as well, and his insults were the funniest thing you've ever heard. By the time you were ten, you couldn't imagine your life without the grumpy asshole. By the time you were thirteen, he died. A fever or something like that, apparently. You knew he had been pretty sick over the last two weeks, but dying? Really?   
  
The new wasn't a good thing, at all. You didn't even talk to him over the last week, and your last conversation hadn't been the best. You were defeated, to say the least. He was one of the nicest persons you had ever met, even though he acted like he was angry all the time, and he cared about everyone he knew more than you ever could. He helped you more than once when you were feeling like shit, and even though his stupid romance novels annoyed you, you missed Storytime with Karkat. You were feeling like something was missing all the time. You never knew he mattered to you that much, but you just wanted him back. You spent a good three days in your room - you didn't cry, he would have wanted you to stay strong, right? But he had no fucking right to die on you like that. He promised you, you'd be there for each other, and yet, when you needed him most, he wasn't there. He would never be by your side again.  
  
That was, until the last fifteen minutes.  Nearly three years had passed since his 'death', and you began to believe the circus' dumb slogan (all these things about the unbelievable itself being under the big top) when a small, brown-haired boy with freckles dusting his cheeks and angry garnet eyes stepping on the stage. You would recognize this glare anywhere, you swore you could tell it was him only by looking at how messy was his hair; you would recognize everything about Karkat anywhere. This guy was your dead best friend.  
  
  



	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Dave is confused, Karkat is angry, and a lot of things are said - even though they mean nothing to our protagonists.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i forgot to mention - the trolls kind of have their god tier powers!

You stared at the boy on the stage for what seemed like hours. He was talking, but the words were nothing but nonsensical syllables.   
  
Karkat was there, Karkat was in front of you, Karkat was alive and you could talk to him again and holy shit that was great.  
  
You finally snapped out of your reverie when Jade looked at you weirdly. "Are you alright, Dave?" You held back a smile and nodded. Maybe you'd be mad at him afterwards for leaving you so long without a word, but you were simply happy at the moment. You had so many things to tell him. The girl next to you rolled her eyes. "Dave, I totally bet you're not even listening to me, or to the show at all." You huffed a bit. "Hell fuckin' yes I am, Harley. Now stop worrying about me and watch it too." She grinned and punched your arm lightly, then her gaze drifted back to the boy, along with yours. He was about to finish his speech, or whatever the hell he was saying - there was no doubt it was him now, his voice was identical.  
  
"You will now see the most amazing, incredible thing on this whole planet!"  
  
What a pretentious asshole, really. There was nothing else on the stage except his small, grouchy self. You highly doubted he'd do anything this special, it was probably something to make people listen more to him, and impress small children -  that was, unless he turned into a crustacean because of how crabby he was or some shit like that. Your friend raised his hand above his head, and reached for something looking like a dagger in his pocket. You frowned a bit. What the hell was he doing?  
  
"Open well your eyes - you really won't believe it!"   
  
You could clearly tell he knew this by heart; he wouldn't say anything like that, he hadn't changed that much, right? The small boy brought the dagger near his index, and not without a barely noticeable wince, pressed it slightly, just enough for some blood to pour from it. You were seriously confused now, and so was Jade. Without any other word, he lowered the hand in the air, and moved the other around it. To everyone's surprise, the red liquid followed. Soon enough, it was twirling around him and you could tell he was more worried, maybe even scared than anything. After a while, enough for the audience to see, he somehow drew back the blood. There was a few seconds of eerie silence, and then everything around you was nothing but clapping, screaming, surprised gasps. You did none of that.   
  
You muttered something to Jade as Karkat made a reverence, then two when he saw everyone was still applauding him. You strode your way out of the crowd, mumbling excuses when you stepped on someone's foot, or anything like that. You eventually found a passage with a sign: 'LODGES. ONLY ARTISTS ARE ALLOWED', written in big, red letters. You found what you were looking for, even if it took you a while.   
  
You looked around to make sure no one had seen you, and opened the door as silently as possible. You _needed_  to talk to him, even more now; this clearly wasn't a trick, and it clearly wasn't normal. The hallway you were now in was darker than the rest of the big top, the wind making the walls of purple, golden and garnet material moving towards you slightly. It eventually lead outside itself, where a shit ton of tents were set up. It took you another while to find the one with 'KARKAT VANTAS' on a patch sewed to the door without any of the few people around noticing you, but you made it there safe and sound.   
  
It was relatively spacious in there, with a small bed covered in blankets in one corner. There was a coffer - probably clothes - next to it, with a bunch of novels laying around and a pair of sickles, apparently. That was practically everything - oh, and Karkat sitting on the bed, too.   
  
His eyes widened as he saw you, and he stood up promptly. "What the everloving fuck are  _you_ doing here?!" He shouted, staring at you like you were some kind of monsters, something straight out of a nightmare. "I knew coming back here was a pretty fucking bad idea, but holy goddamned shit- I can't-" He shook his head and sighed heavily, then pointed the door. "Get the fuck out of here this instant."   
  
You frowned again. No, you wouldn't let him just ignore you now, after all this time. You missed him like crazy, and you wondered for a second if he did too. "Nope, not happening. Karkat, we need to fucking talk. I thought you were dead, and now you just reappear in a circus out of all the places you could revive at like the immortal fucker you apparently are now." You rolled your eyes, and he crossed his arms over his chest.   
  
"Strider, I said get the fuck out. I don't want to talk to you now, or anytime, really. I- I got over you and our pathetic friendship, or whatever the fuck it was, and I don't want shit to do with you. That, and I still need to get changed, these clothes are so fucking uncomfortable I could throw a rant just about that."  
  
You wished you could hide your emotions then. You couldn't help but to be somehow hurt, he was your goddamned best friend, you would have done anything for him. He was the only one you ever showed your eyes too, he knew you by heart and now he was saying none of it mattered. This wasn't like him at all, wasn't it? Maybe this whole time he never wanted to be your friend, maybe this was only you in the first place.  
  
Maybe one of, if not the person you cared about the most never even wanted anything to do with you.  
  
Being the idiot you are, your first reaction had been to hug him tightly - you had no idea why, but you did it anyway. Karkat stiffened, and pushed you away nearly immediately, instinctively reaching for the sickle behind him.  
  
That was how you found yourself pinned to the ground by the guy you once called best friend.   
  
Karkat is now glaring at you, a glare that could make death itself piss its pants. "I said. That I didn't. Want shit to do with you."   
  
You can't bring yourself to do anything but stare at him with wide eyes. No, he really was your friend before, you're certain of this. How the hell did he change this much? This was impossible. "Vantas, what happened to yo-" You feel the sickle closer to your throat, fuck. "There's some shit going one here, some shit you don't want to know about, and since I need to repeat myself again for the dimwitted fucktard you are, I don't want anything to do with you. Stay the fuck away from this place, okay?"   
  
His voice softens a bit at the end, and he states again, "Stay the fuck away, no matter what it takes."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's kind of short again, and really shitty - sorry about that!

**Author's Note:**

> so yeah, this is pretty short, but it's only the prologue. the other chapters will definitely be longer!


End file.
